February 2013 O.Henry

The Art & Soul of Greensboro

The
Heart of a
City
A Webmaster Who Won’t Say No
W
By Ashley Wahl
hen Josh Cranfill has something to
say, people listen.
He talks slowly, avoiding superfluous words, and when he gives
speeches, he always opens with the
same line.
“I am an individual with a physical disability,” he will say, which
might seem like an obvious statement when you see him, but keep listening.
“The word individual comes before disability. I am an individual first.
The disability is part of who I am, but it is not who I am.”
Philosopher is obviously one of his many guises. He also answers to
coach, poker shark, blogger and — his friends will tell you — deadpan
comedian.
Four years ago, he became Webmaster for Greensboro Cerebral Palsy
Association Inc., a nonprofit United Way agency located at Gateway
Education Center that provides educational, play, and therapeutic services
for multidisabled infants and toddlers with severe developmental delays.
Although Josh depends on his parents and nurses for the majority of his
needs, he was able to design the entire website through a single microswitch
controlled by his left thumb, which so happens to be the strongest muscle in
his body.
The opportunity allows him to give back to the same program that gave
him and his family hope despite all odds.
Josh was a healthy-looking baby. At birth, he weighed nearly seven
pounds. For first-time parents René and Allen Cranfill, life
seemed so promising. And then, suddenly, it did not.
Days after his first birthday, “we noticed that he stopped
rolling over and stopped standing up in our laps,” says René.
Two months later, Josh was diagnosed with WerdnigHoffmann disease, the most severe type of spinal muscular
atrophy.
Doctors told René and Allen that their son would live for
another four months. Maybe. Most likely, though, pneumonia
would take his life.
“Our world turned upside down,” says René. “I quit work. If
I had four months to spend with my son, I was going to enjoy
every moment with him.”
Each day brought more heartache.
Then, Josh turned 2.
It hadn’t occurred to René and Allen that the doctors might
be wrong.
A neighbor told René about the Greensboro Cerebral Palsy
Association (GCPA), an early intervention program at Gateway Education
Center. Josh’s medical requirements were such that he was accepted into the
program almost instantly.
“It became my security blanket,” says René. “I realized that I was not the
first parent to have walked through those doors with a child with special
needs. It was OK for me to have a child who was different. We could get
through it.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Cranfills could stop grieving and start living.
Josh received intensive therapy five days a week. He learned to drive an
electric wheelchair and started talking — all before his third birthday.
“Him being here gave me my time at home to be a mommy. Not a
teacher or a therapist,” says René.
Executive Director Linda Lyon describes the GCPA Infant/Toddler
program as a constant bombardment of positive stimulus.
“Many of the children who find their way into the program are among
the lowest two percent of surviving children coming out of local neonatal
units,” says Lyon. “In many ways, Josh was one of the lucky ones.”
This month marks his twenty-ninth birthday.
Each day is a new string of obstacles and triumphs.
When doctors told him not to go to public school, for instance — “he’ll
stay sick,” they said — Josh went anyway.
Generally, his peers accepted him. Teachers were another story.
“I had something to prove,” says Josh.
He made the honor roll through high school, even when his disease
killed most of the muscle cells in his dominant hand.
In 2007, he earned his bachelor of science in leisure/sport management
from Elon University.
Notice the gold ring on his right hand.
And the sliver of a tattoo left uncovered by his shirtsleeve.
When he asked for a sleeve tattoo, which was going to take the artist
roughly five hours to complete, Josh promised that he wouldn’t flinch.
A sports fanatic, he is also the assistant varsity football coach at Western
Alamance High School, the place where
he made all those good grades and
crossed the stage over a decade ago.
He operates his wheelchair by using a
microchip that fits over his thumb. You
bet the players can hear him. Add his
microphone and amplifier and Josh is
unstoppable.
On game nights, however, his pep
talks aren’t usually about football.
“I love to win,” says Josh. “I’m a very
competitive person. But at the end of the
day, there are more important things to life.”
Hope, for instance.
“For me, life isn’t going to get any
easier,” says Josh. “I have to accept that.”
René wipes a tear from the corner of
her son’s eye.
“God made me the way I am because he knew that you and Dad could
handle it.”
For more information about Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Association Inc., call
(336) 375-2575 or go to the web site, www.gatewayearlyintervention.org. OH
February 2013
O.Henry 55